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LE

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescent 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no-one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all.

No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt!

We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law suits.

We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.

We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us.

We walked to friends' homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of...They actually sided with the law.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

And you're one of them. Congratulations!

Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us.

This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it might put a smile on your face:-

The majority of students in universities today were born in 1986........They are called youth.

They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children, and the Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel.

They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or Belinda Carlisle.

For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam.

AIDS has existed since they were born.

CDs have existed since they were born.

Michael Jackson has always been white.

To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance.

They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are Films from last year.

They can never imagine life before computers.

They'll never have pretended to be the A Team or the Famous Five.

They'll never have applied to be on Jim'll Fix It or Why Don't You.

They can't believe a black and white television ever existed and don't even know how to switch on a TV without a remote control. And they phone.

Now let's check if we're getting old...

1. You understand what was written above and you smile.
2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a night out.
3. Your friends are getting married/already married/re-marrying.
4. You are always surprised to see small children playing comfortably with computers.
5. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.
6. You remember watching Dirty Den in EastEnders the first time around.
7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the good old days, repeating again all the fun you have experienced together.
8. Having read this mail, you are thinking of forwarding it to some other friends because you think they will like it too...

LE

- Apparently some moderators take themselves very, very seriously, and cannot abide posts such as:
"If however you offer to moderate you may be a sanctimonious, unfunny ******** to your heart's content."
- Deuteronomy 23:1
- Some comments are allegedly "very very nasty and uncalled for."

LE

he he remember well those days.
we made our own entertainment
there was a metal water flap for stand pipes outside our house we knew Ants lives down there and we would bang on it till the Ants come out swarming everywhere and we would stamp on them til there was none left moving, we also used to pick up worms and chase and frighten girls with it, we weren't worried about getting some strange animal infection
It was always sunny , i remember the Heatwaves of the 70s riding Chopper bikes

today i can remember most of the musics of those days. Bay city rollers, Slade, on becoming a teenager got into human league, Duran Duran, Toyah , Altered Image, and the fashion on Girls was colourful especially their shoes which seems to be making a comeback
i loved Blondie , Atomic Kitten totally and utterly murdered her song "Tide is high"

"Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life" Cecil Rhodes

War Hero

he he remember well those days.
we made our own entertainment
there was a metal water flap for stand pipes outside our house we knew Ants lives down there and we would bang on it till the Ants come out swarming everywhere and we would stamp on them til there was none left moving, we also used to pick up worms and chase and frighten girls with it, we weren't worried about getting some strange animal infection
It was always sunny , i remember the Heatwaves of the 70s riding Chopper bikes

today i can remember most of the musics of those days. Bay city rollers, Slade, on becoming a teenager got into human league, Duran Duran, Toyah , Altered Image, and the fashion on Girls was colourful especially their shoes which seems to be making a comeback
i loved Blondie , Atomic Kitten totally and utterly murdered her song "Tide is high"

LE

The good old days when behaving badly at school resulted in a thrashing, irrespective of guilt.
There was only one fat boy in the class.
There was no such thing as 'Attention Deficit Disorder'.
Parents were almost as scared of the teachers as we were.
We wore plimsolls for PE, and proper shoes the rest of the time.
You woke up to frost on the inside of the bedroom window.
Mars bars cost 7d, and fish and chips were 1/6.
Men Only and Mayfair were popular 'entertainment'.
My dad had a Cortina.
I passed the 11-Plus exam.
There was no mosque in my home town (there still isn't!).
Policemen still walked in the town centre, and people trusted them.

LE

LE

Skateboard,
Top of the hill,
Fresh smooth tarmac,
Screaming as you hurled down as break neck speeds,
That turned out only to be break arm speeds!

Clackers,
Playground at lunch time,
Seeing who could get the fastest,
Trying to concentrate on not breaking the rhythm,
Actually breaking a finger!

Leather satchels
With adjustable straps,
Walking to school with older brothers,
Being a pest and undoing buckles,
Running off out of arms length,
Findings out leather satchels with undone adjustable straps are great lassoes!
Front tooth chipped knees, arms and chin grazed!

Scooters, three and two wheelers,
Down hill races,
For no prize but being the bestest.
Being a smarty and cutting up on the curve,
Flipping up arrse over elbow when the opposition put his foot on the front wheel,
Concussion and two nights in the GRI!

LE

Max Wall remebers when he got banned from the Beeb with,
"I was walking across London Bridge and a large breasted woman came walking towards me.
I didn't know if to stand to one side or toss myself off"
john